Twitter Overtakes Facebook Among U.S. Teens

Twitter Overtakes Facebook Among U.S. Teens

Twitter has overtaken Facebook as the most popular social network among US teens, according to a new survey.

The study by the financial firm Piper Jaffray found Twitter was preferred by 26 percent of adolescents while Facebook and its recently acquired unit Instagram were each chosen by 23 percent.

It found that Twitter, Facebook and Instagram remained well ahead of other social networks used by teens.

Just four percent of teens preferred Tumblr, unchanged from earlier this year, and three percent named Google+, down from five percent.

"The data point is likely unsurprising as the trend in our survey has been moving toward Twitter over the past couple of years," said Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster and Douglas Clinton in a note to clients.